10 of the Best Autobiographies You Really Should Have Read By Now

Want to get a first-person peek into the lives of some extraordinary people? Add these exhilarating autobiographies to your list of must-reads.

‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’

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This 1845 autobiography by former slave Frederick Douglass is widely considered to be one of the best autobiographies ever written. It is a graphic retelling of Douglass’ childhood and the torturous abuse he suffered at the hands of numerous slave-owners, as well as his traumatic escape to freedom, after which he became a respected orator and prominent abolitionist. These are 13 books we bet you never knew were banned.

‘The Year of Magical Thinking’

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In 2003, Joan Didion’s daughter Quintana was hospitalized with a severe case of pneumonia that turned into septic shock. Days later, while Quintana was comatose in the hospital, her husband of nearly 40 years died suddenly of a heart attack while at the dinner table. This stunning memoir, which won the 2005 National Book Award for Nonfiction, recounts Didion’s attempts to reconcile her grief in the year following her husband’s death, while caring for her seriously ill daughter at the same time. This is why your brain needs you to read every single day.